New Yorkers were scrambling to become handgun owners in the wake of the Arizona shooting spree, trying to beat any potential weapons bans.

“I think these are people who say, ‘Here is a congresswoman and no one could protect her, so I am going to protect myself,’ ” said Thomas King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

There were 206 requests for gun-buyer FBI background checks on Monday, two days after Jared Lee Loughner’s rampage.

That’s a 33 percent increase over the 155 background-check requests on Monday Jan. 11, 2010, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.